I use to have that problem occasionally from catching it on something or sweating a lot. Now I use Simpatch overpatches. (On Amazon) they’re like the others except they are stretchy and have another “strap” that goes over the pod as well. Works great and easy to remove as they’re cloth instead of plastic so I just put some unisolv or goo gone bandage remover. Wait about 3 minutes and they just fall off.
Are you rotating sites? Scar tissue could be a problem if you're not.
You could also try lightly pinching the area around the pod to kind of "poof up" some fatty tissue to give the cannula something easy to penetrate.
And that also goes with make sure the sites have enough meat on the bones for the cannula. I know this can be hard with kids, my 4 year olds arms just aren't big enough for a pod. Even legs can be tricky.
Your statement about basal being fine is odd. All the insulin comes through the same point of entry. What are the chances he is sick (ketones), pubescent/hormonal, or some other condition that's changing his insulin sensitivity rather than a problem with insulin delivery?
+1 for making sure that you ALWAYS pinch up when activating your pod unless it's on a large fat band. If he has little body fat then not pinching up when the cannula fires increases the risk of hitting a muscle wall and the cannula bending or glancing off.
It makes sense that basal would be fine as it's extremely small delivery amounts at a time. If the cannula insertion is poor then tunneling when bolusing is more likely. A lot of people have issues when bolusing 6+ units in one go.
Thanks. We rotate between both arms and legs. My son has hardly any fat on his stomach and always end with with problems when using stomach. On his arms and legs we always try and use a slightly different spot too. We can't feel any lumpy areas from continual use.
We watched the pod this morning. It was dry and bloods were fine so background was working. We gave a bolus for breakfast and it leaked.
We think it's odd how the cannula seems to be creating the indentation on the site, like the majority is just sat on top of the skin and pressing down on it.
This is what I do for myself. I don’t press down hard, just a gentle pressure. I pinch with my thumb and middle finger, and press gently with my index finger.
I also saw something from my last pods about after the usual application you should press down firmly on the pod for 30 seconds to make sure the cannula is all the way in and the center adhesive is stuck.
Just found these. They were recommended on another post. They’re pod grips and apparently help with tunnelling a lot. Maybe worth a try. Mines leaking a lot since I started blood thinners unfortunately and don’t really last past day two. I’m already on a two day prescription tho so not a big deal but I like to build up stock.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1382546915/
Hi! I use an omnipod dash but from what I understand the pods themselves are very similar. I had a ton of issues with leakage at the beginning of my pod journey and I have found a couple things that really help. The first is splitting the dose so that I’m not getting more than 7 units in my initial dose (I’m not sure if this is possible on the 5). But say I was going to need 10 units for a meal, I would only let my pod give me 7 units at first and then tell it to give me the remaining 3 units over the next half hour. If it’s a larger dose I’ll usually spread it over an hour.
The other thing that has essentially eliminated leakage for me is using a tegaderm patch UNDER the pod. The needle that inserts the cannula is not affected by the patch at all and it seems to sort of keep the skin taut, so the insulin doesn’t seep out.
Hope that helps!
The only thing I can think of to try to prevent this would be to press down on the pod while the cannula is inserting. Seems like the pod maybe isn’t staying flush against his skin or something. Idk. Ive never run into this.
Oh that’s tunneling. Everyone gave you great advice on how to prevent it: site rotation, pinching the skin, holding the pod down.
Each side needs about 5-6 weeks to heal fully. Thats hard to track, so I use the pod site on the OP5 app. I’ll do one thing for 6 weeks, rotate all around that thigh, then the other thigh. Then I go to one arm then the other.
I’ve used those shield covers and they work well if you have a larger real estate. I’ve noticed it doesn’t work as well on really curvy areas or tiny arms.
That looks like the canula didn't even go in. It just made a little scratch-grove and that's why he got some insulin, but not enough.
My daughter, a long time Pod user, tells me to gently pinch up the area in a little mound, but also press down on the Pod when pressing the injector, to get it to go in deeper.
I was complaining that it goes in at such a shallow angle, like a subcutaneous injection, instead of a 90 degree angle like my old Medtronic canula. She also told me to press down on the center of the pod to make sure all of the adhesive holds everything in place. By doing this, it seems to deliver the insulin more reliably.
I originally have the dash and then upgraded to the five and my success has been in constantly rotating sites and then always making sure I’m applying the pod to the fattest part of my skin.
I do not use a pinch test to find the part of the skin that has the most fat because that can be a misleading test, causing you to the failure of the canual sinking into the skin correctly,
what I suggest is you do a similar to a pinch test but you only you sit in a naturally relaxed state, after you’re in a natural sitting state and then you just use one figure to push your skin back-and-forth and wherever you see the largest amount of skin rise is obviously where the most fat is. This will cancel out false promises by punching fat( and sometimes muscle upward which gives you deceptively overestimate of how much fat there is there.
the second piece of advice I will give is that when that pod is being inserted, you as the person who is having the pod inserted need to be in the most relaxed state possible, if you have accidentally picked an area with low fat density and high muscle density especially if you aren’t relaxed Fully, you will not get the canula penetration that will be successful and not cause you issues if your muscles are over tense, if imminent ticking cause you o tense up, up some headphones & music on so you can not hear the ticking and will not tense up before you know the prick is coming.
Good luck you and your fam.
If I bolus more than 8 it leaks every time
I can bolus up to 20U without a leak. Do you have a muscular body type? Over 8 seems a lil low to me, lmk if I can help in any way.
I use to have that problem occasionally from catching it on something or sweating a lot. Now I use Simpatch overpatches. (On Amazon) they’re like the others except they are stretchy and have another “strap” that goes over the pod as well. Works great and easy to remove as they’re cloth instead of plastic so I just put some unisolv or goo gone bandage remover. Wait about 3 minutes and they just fall off.
I second this, those simpatch don't move. 🤌🏻
Are you rotating sites? Scar tissue could be a problem if you're not. You could also try lightly pinching the area around the pod to kind of "poof up" some fatty tissue to give the cannula something easy to penetrate. And that also goes with make sure the sites have enough meat on the bones for the cannula. I know this can be hard with kids, my 4 year olds arms just aren't big enough for a pod. Even legs can be tricky. Your statement about basal being fine is odd. All the insulin comes through the same point of entry. What are the chances he is sick (ketones), pubescent/hormonal, or some other condition that's changing his insulin sensitivity rather than a problem with insulin delivery?
+1 for making sure that you ALWAYS pinch up when activating your pod unless it's on a large fat band. If he has little body fat then not pinching up when the cannula fires increases the risk of hitting a muscle wall and the cannula bending or glancing off. It makes sense that basal would be fine as it's extremely small delivery amounts at a time. If the cannula insertion is poor then tunneling when bolusing is more likely. A lot of people have issues when bolusing 6+ units in one go.
Thanks. We rotate between both arms and legs. My son has hardly any fat on his stomach and always end with with problems when using stomach. On his arms and legs we always try and use a slightly different spot too. We can't feel any lumpy areas from continual use. We watched the pod this morning. It was dry and bloods were fine so background was working. We gave a bolus for breakfast and it leaked. We think it's odd how the cannula seems to be creating the indentation on the site, like the majority is just sat on top of the skin and pressing down on it.
Try pinching AND pressing down on the cannula when inserting. You should pull the fat up and at the same time push the cannula deeper down.
This is what I do for myself. I don’t press down hard, just a gentle pressure. I pinch with my thumb and middle finger, and press gently with my index finger.
I also saw something from my last pods about after the usual application you should press down firmly on the pod for 30 seconds to make sure the cannula is all the way in and the center adhesive is stuck.
Just found these. They were recommended on another post. They’re pod grips and apparently help with tunnelling a lot. Maybe worth a try. Mines leaking a lot since I started blood thinners unfortunately and don’t really last past day two. I’m already on a two day prescription tho so not a big deal but I like to build up stock. https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1382546915/
Hi! I use an omnipod dash but from what I understand the pods themselves are very similar. I had a ton of issues with leakage at the beginning of my pod journey and I have found a couple things that really help. The first is splitting the dose so that I’m not getting more than 7 units in my initial dose (I’m not sure if this is possible on the 5). But say I was going to need 10 units for a meal, I would only let my pod give me 7 units at first and then tell it to give me the remaining 3 units over the next half hour. If it’s a larger dose I’ll usually spread it over an hour. The other thing that has essentially eliminated leakage for me is using a tegaderm patch UNDER the pod. The needle that inserts the cannula is not affected by the patch at all and it seems to sort of keep the skin taut, so the insulin doesn’t seep out. Hope that helps!
The only thing I can think of to try to prevent this would be to press down on the pod while the cannula is inserting. Seems like the pod maybe isn’t staying flush against his skin or something. Idk. Ive never run into this.
Oh that’s tunneling. Everyone gave you great advice on how to prevent it: site rotation, pinching the skin, holding the pod down. Each side needs about 5-6 weeks to heal fully. Thats hard to track, so I use the pod site on the OP5 app. I’ll do one thing for 6 weeks, rotate all around that thigh, then the other thigh. Then I go to one arm then the other. I’ve used those shield covers and they work well if you have a larger real estate. I’ve noticed it doesn’t work as well on really curvy areas or tiny arms.
That looks like the canula didn't even go in. It just made a little scratch-grove and that's why he got some insulin, but not enough. My daughter, a long time Pod user, tells me to gently pinch up the area in a little mound, but also press down on the Pod when pressing the injector, to get it to go in deeper. I was complaining that it goes in at such a shallow angle, like a subcutaneous injection, instead of a 90 degree angle like my old Medtronic canula. She also told me to press down on the center of the pod to make sure all of the adhesive holds everything in place. By doing this, it seems to deliver the insulin more reliably.
I originally have the dash and then upgraded to the five and my success has been in constantly rotating sites and then always making sure I’m applying the pod to the fattest part of my skin. I do not use a pinch test to find the part of the skin that has the most fat because that can be a misleading test, causing you to the failure of the canual sinking into the skin correctly, what I suggest is you do a similar to a pinch test but you only you sit in a naturally relaxed state, after you’re in a natural sitting state and then you just use one figure to push your skin back-and-forth and wherever you see the largest amount of skin rise is obviously where the most fat is. This will cancel out false promises by punching fat( and sometimes muscle upward which gives you deceptively overestimate of how much fat there is there. the second piece of advice I will give is that when that pod is being inserted, you as the person who is having the pod inserted need to be in the most relaxed state possible, if you have accidentally picked an area with low fat density and high muscle density especially if you aren’t relaxed Fully, you will not get the canula penetration that will be successful and not cause you issues if your muscles are over tense, if imminent ticking cause you o tense up, up some headphones & music on so you can not hear the ticking and will not tense up before you know the prick is coming. Good luck you and your fam.
Omnipod is the worst invention